On the twenty-seventh of June, our Prime Minister placed his signature under the Georgia-EU Association Agreement, cementing the country’s relationship with the European Union.
Festivities ensued, with many people celebrating their country taking such an important step. Soon after, our esteemed President made a speech about Georgia’s next step being full-fledged membership in the EU. Any voices of dissent were lost in a flurry of mutual back-patting, so I hope no one will mind hearing at least one, now that the

storm has calmed.

I am highly skeptical by nature, and tend to take almost everything with a large grain of salt. This whole EU business is no exception. Despite all the sugar-coating and sweet-talk by politicians, it remains, and will remain an alliance of convenience, dictated by Georgia’s desperation at the threat from the north and EU’s desire to have a geopolitical foothold against this threat.

But it can’t be all that bad, one might ask. There are bound to be benefits, right? Yes, I am sure that beginning of trade with the EU and raising of standards that comes with it are going to be beneficial – much of our country’s industry has yet to drag itself out of the post-Soviet muck and shape up. It’s the long-term consequences that I am worried about. Similar promises about economic growth were made to Greece, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Italy. They went through a brief period of prosperity at first, yet look at them now – suffering from massive external debt, racked by unemployment and harrowed by political strife. Is this the future a Georgian citizen wants for his country? I think not.

Another thing that boggles my mind is the naivety of Georgians, both politicians and the general populace, when it comes to EU. They seem to think that Europe is a magical lala-land, with rivers of milk flowing through banks of chocolate and unicorns prancing around. EU is looked upon as a savior, a messiah-like entity that is going to reach out towards Georgia with its benevolent arms and instantly fix everything that is wrong with the country. Yet nobody seems to notice the massive wave of Euro-skepticism that is currently gathering speed in Europe. Some of the most popular French, British, Hungarian, Danish, Italian and Greek politicians have not only spoken out against the EU and its policies, but saw themselves and/or their representatives elected to European Parliament by a majority vote. Even Germany, the powerhouse of the EU, saw the rise of AfD (Alternative für Deutschland), a Euro-skeptic party. What message do such events send to onlookers? A simple message that was true at all times: “Think before you act”. Georgians should understand that not all is well in the EU, and exercise great care in order not to end up being the people who boarded a sinking ship. If EU is so great, why are there so many people from its member countries opposing it? And why are successful, prosperous countries like Norway, Iceland and Switzerland in no hurry to join it? Georgians must take off the rose-tinted glasses and stop being shy about asking both themselves and their politicians these questions.

I am also concerned about the future of Georgian people, their national identity and culture. It isn’t a secret to anyone that EU is a hotpot of globalists, with many of its members supporting the idea of a “United States of Europe”. Herman van Rompuy, President of the European Council, has himself declared that “the time of the homogenous nation state is over”. Not so long ago, Peter Sutherland, UN's special representative for migration (and a chairman of Goldman Sachs International), urged EU to “undermine national homogeneity”. And let us not forget about the past of Jose Barroso, President of the European Commission: this man, who was so warmly welcomed in Georgia recently, used to be a radical Maoist and a member of a Portuguese Communist Party. If it was up to me, I wouldn’t let such a man do my plumbing, let alone preside over one of the most powerful legislative entities in the world. Mr. Barroso currently belongs to a different political party, but who can really say whether he had actually renounced his views? Many post-Soviet countries, such as Estonia and Latvia, have a lot of problems with such ex-communist politicians, who claim to have repented for their past while pushing the same old red garbage under the guise of democratic policies.

In 2012, for his “extraordinary commitment in the European unification process”, Mr. Rompuy received a Coudenhove-Kalergi Prize. Many people will only shrug at this name, but not me. Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi, who is lauded as “ideological father of the EU”, was born at the beginning of the 20th century. This man, who had at least eight different ethnicities mixed in his blood, suffered from what I call “mongrel syndrome” and a massive inferiority complex, which resulted in him wanting to bring the entire Europe down to his level. Coudenhove-Kalergi stated that “the man of the future will be of mixed race” and that “the Eurasian-Negroid race of the future will replace the diversity of peoples with a diversity of individuals”. I’ll pass, thank you very much. I’d like to keep my (relatively) homogenous nation state and have no desire to see Georgian people replaced with Eurasian-Negroids. I’ve heard plenty about so-called refugee quotas imposed by both EU and UN, which serve as an excuse to bring over thousands of third world immigrants from Africa and Middle East into European countries. Most of these people cannot even read or write, let alone comprehend the enormous responsibility of living in a first world country, so they end up reverting to criminal lifestyles they are used to in their homelands. All this, of course, is quickly swept under the carpet and people are told to “celebrate diversity”; countries who protest against such policies (e.g. Denmark) are condemned as “racist bigots”. This is nothing but a poorly veiled blackmail.

The European Union claims to “protect the cultural diversity” of its member states. Yet just a year ago we saw a 300-year-old Swedish mansion, part of the country’s cultural heritage, get converted into a luxurious shelter for Syrian asylum seekers. A few days ago, Spanish newspapers reported that Barcelona’s famous bullfighting ring might get turned into a giant mosque by a Qatari Emir. None of these actions saw even a quip of opposition from the EU. Sorry, but this is not diversity, this is cultural annihilation. If such are gifts of the European Union, I don’t want Georgia having anything to do with it. When I take a walk around my country’s capital, I want it to look like Tbilisi, not Baghdad or Mogadishu.

Therefore, I urge all Georgians who are currently affected by Euro-euphoria to think, and then think again: is the game worth the candle? Are we sure of the ice we are stepping on? Our small country has had its share of Unions and Empires; is joining yet another really a panacea for Georgia’s ills?

Lately, I went to West Georgia in order to learn more about the challenges of organic hazelnut farming in the region. My travel experiences give a good impression about how Georgia works and help explain why I feel so comfortable here during my internship at the Georgian Journal.